


Of chocolate fountains and burnt paella

by Alexander_Daeqirelle



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Tony plays matchmaker and saves the day, attempt at cooking dinner for said date, dinner date, or the night, whichever you prefer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-15 00:45:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19284622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexander_Daeqirelle/pseuds/Alexander_Daeqirelle
Summary: In which Carol comes home from space and Natasha wants to welcome her girl by trying to cook them a romantic dinner. Emphasizing the word trying.





	Of chocolate fountains and burnt paella

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to a_braver for successfully guilt tripping me into writing happy stuff. I had a lot of fun with this! :)

The Black Widow excelled at a great many things. She knew her way around with a large variety of weapons (understatement), she knew exactly what to say and when to say it to get things done the way she wanted them to, she danced on a highly professional level and she could speak more languages than you can count on two hands, to name a few. In short, she had a very, very impressive skill set. There’s also something, however, that Natasha Romanoff is notoriously bad at, and that is cooking. Even after all those hours binge watching Masterchef after missions, her talent in the kitchen could be described as “Nailed It- worthy” at best. But Natasha wouldn’t be Natasha if she didn’t try every now and then.

The Avengers had long since learned the hard way that they couldn’t trust Natasha with their food and she was mostly banned from the kitchen, but it had only been a short while since she had started dating Carol Danvers, who still lived in blissful ignorance of Natasha’s very limited number of flaws. And she was determined to keep it that way. Tonight Carol was returning from space for a few days and Natasha decided that she would welcome her with a nice home-made dinner. After all, the love of a woman goes through her stomach or something, right? 

Returning home from the grocery store she dumped her bag with supplies on the counter and grabbed the recipe she had printed earlier. She had decided on paella, since it was both ‘easy and delicious’ according to the website. She read it through carefully and laid out all the ingredients she would need (see, she did learn something from Masterchef) and set to work. Just a few simple steps she had to follow and Carol was going to be very impressed. “Heat one tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan,” she muttered, reading out loud. She placed the recipe on the counter and put the pan and the oil on the stove and then went on with the following steps, confidently adding smoked paprika, dried thyme (was that something people actually ate outside fancy restaurants?) and the rice and stirred it for a moment while opening the wine. She poured some of it in the pan, drank some more of it (another lesson from Masterchef, you have to taste what you serve the guests, and you have to taste several times if you serve them alcohol (though that part is her own addition)) and after putting in the tomatoes and the chicken stock this was well on it’s way to becoming the best paella Carol had ever had. “I’ll show those aliens whose food she likes,” she hummed as she put on some music while waiting for everything to cook and started setting the table. She was quite new to this (not the whole dating thing in itself but dating someone she actually cared about instead of doing it for work) so everything went by the book. Fancy tablecloth, candles, elegantly folded napkins… “If you had told me you were planning a surprise dinner I would’ve dressed nicer.” Natasha looked up as Tony walked into the room with a grin on his face. She rolled her eyes. “It’s for Carol you moron, she’s coming home tonight.” Tony looked at the stove and raised his eyebrows. “And you’re cooking? I thought you wanted her to stay.” Natasha sent him a only half-meant glare. “I’ll have you know that I have everything perfectly under control. In fact,” she glanced at the clock. “Everything should be cooked by now.” She walked over to the pan, Tony curiously watching her, and lifted the lid to stir her paella only to discover that it was indeed cooked, but also very stuck to the pan. “Uh oh.” “Is something wrong?” asked Tony innocently, but smiling widely with barely contained laughter. And with one more glance at the clock Natasha threw her pride out of the window. “Yes genius, something is very wrong! Carol is going to be here in like fifteen minutes and I can’t possibly serve her this,” she gestured around helplessly, “burnt mess.” She sighed in frustration. “How could this even happen? I did everything it said!” Tony looked the piece of paper on the counter. “Hmm what rice did you use?” “Just basic rice, why?” said Natasha, frustration making way for confusion now. “You should’ve used paella or risotto rice, then it would’ve worked.” “There’s a special kind of rice for that?! Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Natasha put her head in her hands. “I’m hopeless, she’s going to be so disappointed.” “Hey,” said Tony, reaching for his phone. “You’re not hopeless. You tried. And don’t worry, I know a guy. You clean this up and go greet your girl, I have a few phone calls to make.” And with a wink he disappeared from the room.

Natasha stood waiting outside the compound, staring at the sky until she saw a beam of red and blue light that quickly approached. The space captain landed and when the light faded Natasha finally got to see her girlfriend’s face again and she smiled brightly. It had been too long. Carol closed the distance in a few short steps and pulled her into a tight hug. “Hey,” she whispered. “I missed you.” “I missed you too.” Their lips met and Natasha drank it all in. Carol’s soft lips on hers, one hand in her hair, the other on her waist, holding her close. She felt like she could stay there forever but then the cold evening breeze made her shiver and they made their way inside. “God I’m starving,” said Carol as she hung her jacket over the closest chair she could find. “Please tell me you know a restaurant with a fast delivery service.” “Well,” Natasha started, not entirely sure what she was going to say but she didn’t need to finish that sentence as Carol had spotted the table Natasha had set earlier and where now also a full three course dinner was waiting for them. “This is amazing!” She said enthusiastically. “Did you make all of this?” Carol’s eyes were shining and expectant and beautiful and Natasha, who had been quick to hide the surprise she felt, slowly answered, “Yes.” “You’re an angel,” said Carol happily, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Shall we?” As they sat down another angel poked his head around the door and without her date noticing Natasha mouthed “Thank you”. Tony gave her a smile and a thumbs up and disappeared again. 

The evening went by in a blissful haze. Laughing about Carol’s latest adventures in space, Natasha sharing her own stories, hands brushing whenever they could. She loved Carol’s smile, the way her eyes shined in the candlelight, how she looked at Natasha as if she wanted her to be the fourth course on the menu. Later, when she went to the kitchen to put the dirty plates away and grab a new bottle of wine she found Tony there making coffee. “Hey, you need to give me the number of that guy of yours.” Tony grinned. “I take it this was a success then. Not too much?” Natasha couldn’t help a smile of her own. “The chocolate fountain was maybe a little over the top but she loved it so I’m not complaining.” “You better not. Chocolate is a natural aphrodisiac.” His grin was mischievous now. Natasha rolled her eyes. “Come on Stark. But seriously, thank you.” 

Later that night they had found their way to the couch, talking casually, Carol’s head on Natasha’s shoulder. “You didn’t actually cook all of that yourself did you?” she asked, raising her head a little. Natasha looked down. “No, I didn’t. How’d you know?” “I found burnt paella in the trash when I threw away the napkins.” She smiled. “Also, the chocolate fountain kind of gave it away.” Natasha smiled too. “Yeah I had a little help.” Carol pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “It’s sweet though, that you wanted to cook for me. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about the chocolate fountain. Chocolate is a natural aphrodisiac.” Natasha let out a laugh and looked down at Carol, who had copied Tony’s mischievous grin, and grinned back. “As if you need that with me.” Carol softly pressed her lips against Natasha’s. ‘You’re right, I don’t,” she whispered and kissed her again.


End file.
